Chances are if you’re 50 or under you have, or have had Amazon Prime. Well all those subscriptions are adding up to the effect that CEO Jeff Bezos is deciding it’s time to head to outer space.
That’s right, Bezos is selling a hell of a lot of Amazon stock to fund his rocket dreams. What else are you supposed to do with a supposed net worth of $75.6 billion?
Raw story explains further:
Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos said on Wednesday he is selling about $1 billion worth of the internet retailer’s stock annually to fund his Blue Origin rocket company, which aims to launch paying passengers on 11-minute space rides starting next year.
Blue Origin had hoped to begin test flights with company pilots and engineers in 2017, but that probably will not happen until next year, Bezos told reporters at the annual U.S. Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.
“My business model right now … for Blue Origin is I sell about $1 billion of Amazon stock a year and I use it to invest in Blue Origin,” said Bezos, the chief executive of Amazon.com Inc and also the owner of The Washington Post newspaper.
Ultimately, the plan is for Blue Origin to become a profitable, self-sustaining enterprise, with a long-term goal to cut the cost of space flight so that millions of people can live and work off Earth, Bezos said.
Blue Origin is starting out small, looking to eventually shuttle passengers on 11-minute “space hops” that last long enough to experience weightlessness & see the earth in the window, but not extreme enough to put the capsule into orbit.
Feels good to know all those dog bowls & toiletries I spontaneously bought on Amazon Prime have been contributing to the furthering of space exploration.